i make good money. why do i feel that others think they are entitled to it?

[BlahBlahYouToo]

i come from a lower middle income family that preached the value of education and hard work. i didn't live in the inner city ghettos, but i was not exactly privileged.
i studied my ass off and worked throughout HS and college to contribute to my family's expenses as well as funding a splurge here or there (computer components, my first used car, ipod, gadgets, etc.).

fast forward to today where i have a cushy job that pays fairly well, but i believe i earned it. the hard work from previous years paid off.

however, when i come into p&n and read threads, i can't help but feel that many think i should be penalized for my work ethic. that somehow the rewards that i am now reaping should be distributed to the less fortunate.

when i look back and think, what were they doing when i was taking the bus that takes me to the store where i worked after a full day of school? hanging out, maybe playing ball, at the pool hall, possibly up to no good. who knows...
all i question is why i have to fork out more money to support them and their bad behavior?

while i'm paying a sh*t ton of taxes, they're not just being unproductive, they're being the opposite by leeching off gov't funds that i contribute to.
yet the gov't feels this is fine, and not only that, they want to take even more from me now?
something is not right here...

and don't paint me as someone who wants to hoard all my money, not wanting to help others out. i have donated to my alma mater and to the hospital whose services i've used and am grateful for.
i'd rather choose where my money goes, rather than having it go to someone who's on welfare for life but perfectly able to work and provide for themselves.

 

[TruePaige]

No mention of fat people, you hate filled puss bag?

 

[UberNeuman]

Pull out enough of the pieces and watch it all come crashing down on your ivory tower....

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

No mention of fat people, you hate filled puss bag?

que?
why so much anger?

 

[Slew Foot]

Because the Dems are in power and someones got to pay for pandering to their base.

 

[Argo]

i come from a lower middle income family that preached the value of education and hard work. i didn't live in the inner city ghettos, but i was not exactly privileged.
i studied my ass off and worked throughout HS and college to contribute to my family's expenses as well as funding a splurge here or there (computer components, my first used car, ipod, gadgets, etc.).

fast forward to today where i have a cushy job that pays fairly well, but i believe i earned it. the hard work from previous years paid off.

however, when i come into p&n and read threads, i can't help but feel that many think i should be penalized for my work ethic. that somehow the rewards that i am now reaping should be distributed to the less fortunate.

when i look back and think, what were they doing when i was taking the bus that takes me to the store where i worked after a full day of school? hanging out, maybe playing ball, at the pool hall, possibly up to no good. who knows...
all i question is why i have to fork out more money to support them and their bad behavior?

while i'm paying a sh*t ton of taxes, they're not just being unproductive, they're being the opposite by leeching off gov't funds that i contribute to.
yet the gov't feels this is fine, and not only that, they want to take even more from me now?
something is not right here...

and don't paint me as someone who wants to hoard all my money, not wanting to help others out. i have donated to my alma mater and to the hospital whose services i've used and am grateful for.
i'd rather choose where my money goes, rather than having it go to someone who's on welfare for life but perfectly able to work and provide for themselves.

I feel somewhat the same way. It is a very frustrating feeling. This year, I paid enough taxes to fully support a lower income family. And here, I'm being told hat it's not enough and we should do more.

To clarify - I have no problems paying taxes. I just feel the taxes should go towards items that affect all of us: infrastructure, security, enforcement of our country's rules and laws. And not towards helping those who made poor choices in their lives.

 

[CycloWizard]

Create disincentives for productivity and incentives for non-productivity and eventually you'll end up with too few people to soak to keep the scam going. But only if you believe in cause and effect.

 

[ShawnD1]

however, when i come into p&n and read threads, i can't help but feel that many think i should be penalized for my work ethic. that somehow the rewards that i am now reaping should be distributed to the less fortunate.

We'll refund your money as soon as you pay back all of that money you leeched from us. Free public education for 12 years of grade school means you owe us over $100,000. If you went to a public university, you owe us an additional $20,000 for every year you attended.

Once that's all paid back, we'll talk

 

[nonlnear]

We'll refund your money as soon as you pay back all of that money you leeched from us. Free public education for 12 years of grade school means you owe us over $100,000. If you went to a public university, you owe us an additional $20,000 for every year you attended.

Once that's all paid back, we'll talk

Ah yes, the old "the system was in place before you had any choice in the matter, therefore it is illegitimate to criticize it" argument. Very convincing!

And don't try to parry by claiming that you really were just asking for the debt to be repaid. Everybody knows that that is not the premise of the system, or how it is funded.

 

[Argo]

We'll refund your money as soon as you pay back all of that money you leeched from us. Free public education for 12 years of grade school means you owe us over $100,000. If you went to a public university, you owe us an additional $20,000 for every year you attended.

Once that's all paid back, we'll talk

So I paid a lot more than $100k in taxes throughout my life. In fact, most middle class people who worked for more than 5-10 years have. So your point doesn't have a lot of merit.

 

[Hacp]

No, other people are entitled to the fruits of your labor. Your hard work and dedication is needed to support the collective. Now shut up, go back to work, and pay for my trip to Hawaii.

 

[ShawnD1]

Ah yes, the old "the system was in place before you had any choice in the matter, therefore it is illegitimate to criticize it" argument. Very convincing!

Fine don't pay it back. Just promise that at least 1 of your children never attends a public school or public university and we'll call it even.

 

[nonlnear]

Fine don't pay it back. Just promise that at least 1 of your children never attends a public school or public university and we'll call it even.

I promise. (And I'll be more than paying it back as well.)

 

[umbrella39]

It's interesting to me that some think that doing nothing and ignoring the rising premiums, millions of uninsured, jobless, homeless, etc. will cost you and I less money in the long run somehow. There but for the grace of God could be any one of us tomorrow. If that day does come, I bet most will be tickled fricken pink to know that their kids will be taken care of God forbid something happen to one of them.

 

[nonlnear]

It's interesting to me that some think that doing nothing and ignoring the rising premiums, millions of uninsured, jobless, homeless, etc. will cost you and I less money in the long run somehow. There but for the grace of God could be any one of us tomorrow. If that day does come, I bet most will be tickled fricken pink to know that their kids will be taken care of God forbid something happen to one of them.

Who said anything about the health care bill? And it's not like what was passed was even socialism anyways...

 

[ShawnD1]

So I paid a lot more than $100k in taxes throughout my life. In fact, most middle class people who worked for more than 5-10 years have. So your point doesn't have a lot of merit.

Actually most people haven't paid that much.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_States (lots of nice graphs)

Key piece of information from that article is the following:

The overall median personal income for all individuals over the age of 18 was $25,149[4] ($32,140 for those age 25 or above) in the year 2005.[5] The overall median income for all 155 million persons over the age of 15 who worked with earnings in 2005 was $28,567.[6]

It's important to understand the different between median and average. Average can be strongly affected by outliers. Suppose I had a data set of the following numbers:
1, 2, 3, 4, 100.
The average is all of the numbers added together then divided by how many data points there are. For the above set of numbers, the average is 22, which isn't close to any of the numbers.
Median is the middle number. I have a set of five data points, so the median is the third data point. The median would be 3, which is more reflective of where most of the data points are.

Going by the strict definition of what a median is, I can say as a fact that most Americans earn less than 35k. At this income level, the amount of money paid in taxes is quite a bit less than the amount taken out.


TLDR: Most Americans collect more tax money than they put in. Quit your bitching.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

We'll refund your money as soon as you pay back all of that money you leeched from us. Free public education for 12 years of grade school means you owe us over $100,000. If you went to a public university, you owe us an additional $20,000 for every year you attended.

Once that's all paid back, we'll talk

so the taxes my parents paid didn't contribute towards my education right?
and the taxes i'm paying now (single, no kids) aren't going to my local schools right?

 

[Throckmorton]

How much money do you think you'd be making in a country with no public infrastructure and programs? Go to Haiti and see how rich you are. Hell, just look at how rich Haitians aren't, no matter how hard they work. Thank your lucky stars you're an American paying American taxes and stop complaining.

 

[Hacp]

How much money do you think you'd be making in a country with no public infrastructure and programs? Go to Haiti and see how rich you are. Hell, just look at how rich Haitians aren't, no matter how hard they work. Thank your lucky stars you're an American paying American taxes and stop complaining.

Now you look at the United States before it started all these social programs and it was still a world power at that time. Social programs are not a prerequisite for a strong country.

 

[ShawnD1]

so the taxes my parents paid didn't contribute towards my education right?

Nope. Their taxes paid their own education and your taxes pay your education.

Most people don't even get that far. They get the free education and free public roads and police and fire department and they never pay it back because their income (and taxes) are too low to pay it back. It sucks that you're paying a shit load of taxes, but you should feel fortunate that you managed to beat the odds.

 

[Hacp]

We'll refund your money as soon as you pay back all of that money you leeched from us. Free public education for 12 years of grade school means you owe us over $100,000. If you went to a public university, you owe us an additional $20,000 for every year you attended.

Once that's all paid back, we'll talk

100,000 for 12 years of grade school? Are you serious? I attended a parocial school, it cost around four thousand a year.

 

[Hacp]

Nope. Their taxes paid their own education and your taxes pay your education.

Most people don't even get that far. They get the free education and free public roads and police and fire department and they never pay it back because their income (and taxes) are too low to pay it back. It sucks that you're paying a shit load of taxes, but you should feel fortunate that you managed to beat the odds.

Beat the odds? No, he fought for it. Beat the odds means he got lucky somehow. He clawed his way out of poverty. Now he is forced to support all the deadbeats who spend their afternoons up to no good.

 

[UberNeuman]

100,000 for 12 years of grade school? Are you serious? I attended a parocial school, it cost around four thousand a year.

That explains a lot....

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

How much money do you think you'd be making in a country with no public infrastructure and programs? Go to Haiti and see how rich you are. Hell, just look at how rich Haitians aren't, no matter how hard they work. Thank your lucky stars you're an American paying American taxes and stop complaining.

where did i say i did not want to pay any taxes?

 

[DonInKansas]

My wife and I work alternating shifts 40 hours a week to live paycheck to paycheck supporting our two kids. Forgive me if your "problems" don't compute.